


Petals of the Past become the Flowers of Tomorrow

by mewmewzelda22



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 03:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16255337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mewmewzelda22/pseuds/mewmewzelda22
Summary: Hanahaki disease, an illness born of unrequited love. Seeds of sorrow fall into your lungs and slowly grow into beautiful flowers, flowers that suffocate you until your lungs are nothing more than a garden for them. Never once in his life did Lance think he would ever end up with it. With the disease that has the hardest to reach cure. The disease that was both beautiful and horrific. The disease that would end him.





	Petals of the Past become the Flowers of Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for english over the span of nine weeks. If there are any errors please do tell, Google Docs is mean sometimes and corrects some things without asking.

Hanahaki disease, an illness born of unrequited love. Seeds of sorrow fall into your lungs and slowly grow into beautiful flowers, flowers that suffocate you until your lungs are nothing more than a garden for them. Never once in his life did Lance think he would ever end up with it. With the disease that has the hardest to reach cure. The disease that was both beautiful and horrific. The disease that would end him.

Lance sat in his bed, staring at the blood-soaked petals that lay in his hands. He had seen so many people back on earth suffer from this beautiful curse. He had lost so many people because of this beautiful curse. He wished more than anything that he could go back in time and stop himself from convincing Hunk to go check on Pidge that one fateful night. He wished he could stop himself from ever taking that one last glance at her. He wished he could stop himself from ever falling in love with Pidge Gunderson. Falling in love with Katie Holt.  
He was knocked out of his train of thoughts by the blaring of an all too familiar alarm ringing throughout the Castleship. In a quick movement he had discarded the petals and ran to the hangar where his lion rested. Once he was seated inside Red he began to start her up and get her into space. Within seconds of launching he was already fighting dozens of Galran fighter jets. Once Keith had made it out of the Castleship with Black, they began the practiced routine of killing off the enemy combatants. Slowly but surely they picked off the mass amount of fighter jets and their main ships. Several times throughout the long battle Lance had to ask Red to take over as he coughed blood-soaked petals out of his lungs. He knew the others could hear his suffering over the comms, but never once did anyone make the move to question it.

Once they had successfully fought off the enemy, everyone made their way back to the Castleship. As the last one to dock his lion in the hangar, Lance stood from his seat in Red to see that his fellow paladins were waiting outside of his lion with worried looks painted on their faces. He knew he was going to have to face the others with his problem sooner or later, but he wished it were later. He didn’t want to explain himself to the other paladins, to Pidge, but he knew he couldn’t stop the inevitable. With a sorrowful smile drawn on his face, Lance made his way out of Red and stood before his fellow paladins.  
“Hey, come to check up on your favorite sharpshooter? I know I’m everyo-” Lance began before a mass of tiny human ran into him, which was soon joined by the other three humans in the room.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I can’t lose you too.”

“How bad is it, how long have you been sick?”

“Guys, guys, I’m oka-” Before he could finish his sentence, Lance began to cough up more of the beautiful blood-soaked flowers that he had come to hate. His friends pulled back from their embrace, giving him the room he needed to fall on his knees and rid his throat of the petals that currently blocked his airway. Once the coughing fit gave out, everyone returned to their spot next to the blue paladin. Shiro helped Lance up with help from Keith, Pidge had run off to get water pouches, and Hunk had began to sweep up the petals to dispose of them. It was when Hunk had started to walk away with the petals did Lance dare to try and speak again.

“Stop!” He yelled, grabbing the attention of the paladins in the room, “Stop, please don’t throw those away.” Beginning to cry he made his way over to where Hunk stood, reaching out and grabbing the space dust pan from his hands.

“I refuse to throw them away like they’re nothing, because they’re something to me. The fact that they are using my lungs to grow themselves makes them worth quite a bit.” Chuckling to himself, Lance, with the help of Shiro and Keith, made his way to the one place he felt safe, his room. Once there he walked over to the Altean equivalent of a dresser and opened the top drawer. Listening to the chorus of gasps behind him, the Blue Paladin added his new petals to the ever growing pile he had going in his dresser.

“I guess you guys want to know everything now, don’t you?” Moving over as to sit on his bed he continued, “It started after we left Arus, that makes this the second month that I’ve had this? Blue and Red have been good at keeping it a secret, they even take over in battle when the coughing gets to be too much, but that’s beside the point. I, uh, really don’t have much else to say other than the fact that I’m probably gonna die?” Leaning back, Lance leaned back on the wall and drew his knees to his chest and put his head down. He didn’t want to see the looks that donned his friend’s faces. He didn’t want to see the tears that he knew were rolling down their cheeks. He didn’t want to face the fact that he was going to die.

It wasn’t until he heard the opening of his door and the shuffling of feet that Lance dared to look up. After his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw two worried Alteans had joined the group in his room as well as a crying Pidgeon who was holding out a water pouch for him. With a smile he accepted the water and began to drink it. About halfway through the pouch he once again began to cough, though he noticed this fit hurt more than any other he had. Dropping his water pouch, Lance drew his jacket to his face and hacked away. Through the haze his coughing put him in, the Blue Paladin still felt the hand on his shoulder, the extra weight on his bed, and the small figure that embraced his side. Even in all his pain he could feel all the love that his space family had for him.

Once his hacking fit seized, he looked in his jacket to find he hadn’t coughed up just petals, but an entire flower. Letting the bloody flower fall into his hands, he looked to his friends, then to the one person all his suffering was for. Tears ran down his face as he began to quietly chuckle, turning to face Voltron’s programmer, the Green Paladin, Pidge Gunderson, Katie Holt, he offered the sad but beautiful flower to the person he had fallen in love with.

“I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to embarrass myself like this, but I guess I should give this to you, I mean, it is for you. Do with it as you please. You can burn it, do science stuff with it, heck, you could even throw it into space if that’s what you want to do. Just know that you mean more to me than you think.” Having said what plagued his mind he dropped the bloodied flower into Pidge’s open hands, then proceeded to collect the loose petals he coughed up and add them to the drawer where he stored his petals. When he turned around to walk back to his bed he saw that the Green Paladin had yet to move from the spot she sat in to receive her flower, and that she had an onslaught of tears running down her face.  
“I think Hunk and I are going to take a look at the Teleduv to make sure it’s in tip-top shape!” Coran spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room. He grabbed Hunk’s hand and dragged him out of the crowded space, soon to be followed by the two humans and altean who mumbled something about having to do training and talk about the blades mission coming up. This left the Green and Blue Paladins alone in the small space Lance called his bedroom. Seeing the opportunity that Coran graciously gave him, Lance walked back over to his bed and sat next to his sad friend. Before he could make himself comfy, the Blue Paladin found himself being embraced by the small body of Pidge, her body shaking with the silent sobs that left her body.

“Y-you freaking idiot! How the heck cou-could you just up and-and say something like th-that! Y-you can’t leave us! You can’t leave me! I’ve lost too much, and I can’t stand to lose you too. I-I don’t think I'd be able to live through that. I can’t live after something like that.” Ranted Pidge, her voice wavering on the last few statements. Speechless, Lance removed the small one from his body, moving as to have her sit against his side, then proceeded to continue the paused embrace. Slowly, the bigger of the two began to explain himself.

“Of all the Paladins, I’m the weakest link. I can’t do technology and engineering like you or Hunk. I can’t perform castle repairs like Coran. I can’t control the ship like Allura. I can’t fight like Keith or Shiro. I’m just the seventh wheel. I’m just a boy from Cuba. I’m just Lance McClain.” The Blue paladin mumbled, struggling to fight the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. Releasing Pidge, Lance fell into another fit of coughing, the Holt watching as her friend rid his throat of the intruding petals, though these ones appeared to be more bloody than the previous ones. After the coughing fit ended the Blue Paladin sat back up, only to be faced with a look of concern.

“You dolt. You never had to suffer like this you know, right?” Pidge began, slowly gathering the new pile of petals from Lance’s lap so he wouldn’t have to.  
“You never should have kept this from us, from me. If you had told us we could’ve prevented it from ever getting this bad.” Standing from the bed, she walked over to the dresser and deposited the petals to where they were being stored. 

“I don’t know what you think you could’ve done to fix me, but from what I know there is no cure for this. That is, unless, the healing pods can magically remove the seeds that are in my lungs. The only way to rid of this is to get a confession from the person it’s for, and it’s quite obvious that you don’t like me like that. There never has been and never will be hope for me Pidge, it’s over, can’t you see?” Lance spoke, his voice raspy from the onslaught of petals brought forth moments before. The Green Paladin watched as her friend began to curl in on himself, obviously trying to hide away from the reply he knew was to come. 

“I’m well aware there is no cure for Hanahaki, and I’m positive the pods wouldn’t be able to do anything either, but I could’ve helped you. I still can help you.” The Green Paladin replied. Walking over to the bed, Pidge sat in front of Lance and held his hands in hers. Looking up from his hunched over position, the Blue Paladin saw that a blush covered his friends face and began to blush himself.

“I like you Lance, I really do. I can’t believe you didn’t realize it all this time. I’m pretty sure everyone else on this blasted castleship knows that too! I thought I made it obvious, but even then you were oblivious to my actions! I like you-you-you Yelmore!” And with that Pidge, Katie Holt, leaned forward and hugged Lance, and was hugged back in return.

“I don’t know if being called a Yelmore is a compliment or an insult.” Laughed Lance who pulled the smaller of the two into his lap so it was more comfortable for the two, “But I’m happy you like me back. I don’t know if you guys would’ve been able to replace this beautiful person.”

After a long while of them just hugging each other a knock resounded from the door of Lance’s room.

“It’s time for dinner you guys, and Hunk made something so we won’t have to eat food goo!” Coran’s voice boomed from the hallway. They then heard the clomps of his feet as he, assumably, went to alert the other Paladins.

“We’d better get to the dining room then, shouldn’t we?” Murmured Lance.

“Yeah, or we could send one of my little fluffy guys to go get us food while we play the game system.” 

“I like that idea, but what are these little floofy guys you speak of?”

“I’ll show you!” And with that Pidge grabbed Lance’s hand and dragged him to her room where they grabbed the floofy creatures and sent them to get food while they went back to Lance’s room to play their game, the hydrangea flower left forgotten in the drawer of the dresser.


End file.
